Eileen | Styled Maternity Shoot

The story of me and Eileen.

When I first moved to Perth ohh...about a year and a half ago, I was still a bit of a photography baby. I remember one afternoon sitting in my husband's office, in a new place with few friends, no photo colleagues, and precious little experience, and scrounging up all the nervous energy I had to compose a very boisterous (mmm falsely confident) e-mail and send it off to a handful of local Perth photographers, and crossed my fingers.

I sat there, overthinking the content of that e-mail and absentmindedly clicking the refresh button, and minutes later got her reply - which I still fondly remember! She said something like, "I'm just headed out of the house and I'm excited to read your e-mail properly when I get back!" and I think in that moment, became the first person to make me feel welcome in Perth.

We've been friends and photographer colleagues ever since and she has taken me under her wing and taught me so much about photography - second shooting, lighting techniques and composition basics (never let the trees stick out of people's heads) - and I doubt I would be booking my own weddings if it weren't for her. Naturally, when she asked me to take maternity photos for her, I was quite honoured.

This was my first time doing maternity photography and I absolutely loved every minute of it, but all the planning and styling credit goes to Eileen. She's probably the only person I know who's brilliant enough to plan a styled shoot and be the model, and the only photographer I know brave enough to have a vision and trust someone else with the execution.